Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
FDA Clears AI Radiology Tool That Triages CT Scan For 14 Conditions
On Wednesday, radiology AI company Aidoc announced the FDA has cleared a tool that can triage 14 critical findings in a single abdominal CT scan: liver injury, spleen injury, bowel obstruction, appendicitis, and more. (Palmer, 1/21)
On the health care worker shortage —
The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) recently launched a pilot pathway to certification for international medical graduates (IMGs) who completed residency abroad. Eligible participants must have completed at least 3 years of internal medicine training abroad, according to ABIM, as well as an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited fellowship in an ABIM subspecialty. (Henderson, 1/21)
The union representing 31,000 nurses and other health care workers at Kaiser Permanente plan to start an open-ended strike Monday at dozens of Kaiser locations in California and Hawaii, including in the Bay Area. The union, UNAC/UHCP (United Nurses Association of California/Union of Health Care Professionals), issued a notice to strike last week over what workers say are unsafe staffing levels, access to care and fair wages. The union’s contract with Oakland-based Kaiser expired Sept. 30, and the two sides have been in contract negotiations since then. (Ho, 1/21)
On health care data and privacy —
After the largest-ever number of Americans had their health data compromised in 2024, the last year saw significant improvement. Roughly 46 million medical records were breached in 2025, an 84% decrease from the year before, according to the Health and Human Services Department’s Office for Civil Rights. Security experts attribute the reduction to an increased provider focus on third-party business partners. (Broderick, 1/21)
On the digital superhighway that allows sensitive patient health records to be shared by hospitals and doctors, something seemed off to engineers at Epic Systems: Among the providers with access to the network were names that sounded like law firms. That observation in 2022 led to an investigation into what Epic — the nation’s largest vendor of electronic health record software — alleges are “organized syndicates” that fraudulently obtained access to nearly 300,000 patient records without their consent, in many cases marketing them to lawyers to allegedly mine for prospective clients. (Gilbert, 1/22)
Send us your tributes to health care —
鶹Ů Health News: Make Us Swoon: Send In Your Health Policy Valentines
Affordable health care is our love language. Stoke the fire by submitting your sweetest “Health Policy Valentines.” We want to see your clever, heartfelt, or hilarious tributes to the policies that shape health care. An esteemed panel of editors will review entries. We’ll share favorites on our social media channels, and our staff will pick the winners, announced on Friday, Feb. 13, just in time for Valentine’s Day. (1/22)
